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What does it mean to live in a quantum universe?

#AskEthan

Most of us don't think of quantum physics as playing a role in our macroscopic, everyday world.

But look closer, and you'll see that so much absolutely relies on it.
bigthink.com/starts-with-a-ban…

A green laser entering a beam splitter and exiting in two perpendicular directions.

Ask Ethan: What does it mean to live in a quantum universe?

Over a century after we first unlocked the secrets of the quantum universe, people find it more puzzling than ever. Can we make sense of it?
Ethan Siegel (Big Think)
#askethan

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in reply to StartsWithABang

Dan Sugalski
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Dan Sugalski
• •

One thing I have wondered about all this. In the equation E=hf, does f have to be an integer quantity? Or can it be any (more or less) real number?

It feels like it ought to be an integer quantity (otherwise things wouldn't be very quantized) but I don't know if I've ever seen it detailed anywhere that it is, or isn't, constrained in some way.

in reply to Dan Sugalski

StartsWithABang
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StartsWithABang
• •
@wordshaper frequencies can be continuous in that equation. After all, when the Universe expands, wavelengths lengthen continuously, and since frequency * wavelength = wave speed (such as the speed of light in a vacuum, which is a constant), then yes, frequencies don't need to be quantized and discrete in every case.
@Dan Sugalski
in reply to StartsWithABang

Dan Sugalski
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Dan Sugalski
• •
ah! Keen, and that answers another question I had. I was imagining a fully quantized photon whizzing through space and… kinda down-shifting as it went. (Without, I assume, a *chunk*chunk*chunk* noise, though that would’ve been cool)
in reply to Dan Sugalski

G1itchbit
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G1itchbit
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More like a drawing on the surface of an expanding balloon, which is why there's no "center" to the expansion.
in reply to G1itchbit

Dan Sugalski
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Dan Sugalski
• •
@glitch oh, sure, I’m familiar with the metaphors, but I’m also aware that metaphors aren’t reality and that quantum mechanics is, for me at least, weird. If you told me that frequency *was* both quantized and constrained to integers (or something) I would accept that and just be chill about my underlying lack of comprehension.
@G1itchbit
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